Frequently Asked Questions

A membership community for adults who may have struggled to find their footing in traditional social spaces and are seeking a more structured way to make connections. It is built with particular attention to neurodivergent adults and adults with disabilities, including intellectual and developmental disabilities.

No. All that matters is whether this is a community you want to be part of.

Must be 18 years of age and over.

Our team is in the Washington, D.C. metro area, and that is where most of our members are too, along with the wider East Coast. Not exclusively, though, and the map is filling in. Where you live changes how often you can reach an in-person gathering. It does not change your membership. The portal, the virtual programming, the discussions, Connection Requests and messaging all work the same wherever you are.

North Star is a part of the member portal created for adults with higher support needs who may benefit from an increased level of moderation, support, and shorter or more direct content. It uses clear language, concrete examples, predictable structure and explicit steps, with more active moderation in its discussions and gatherings. It keeps the same adult subjects, and your choices stay yours. We decide together at your intake conversation whether North Star is a good fit. If you, or you and your Support Person, want to adjust it later, tell us and we’ll change it.

$5,000 for the first year, then $4,000 each year after. That is a twelve-month term, starting the day your payment goes through. Renewal is by invoice. There is no recurring charge and nothing renews automatically.

Yes, and many memberships are paid for by a parent or another family member. Paying does not give the payer an account, access to the member’s portal account, or authority over the member’s choices. The member is the member. We respect their independence. Becoming an authorized Support Person is the best way to be there for someone in Constellations.

Two ways, and neither one is an application. If you would rather talk to a person first, book a consultation. It is a short conversation with our team. There is no obligation at the end of it. If you have read enough and want to get on with it, you can join directly. We ask two things first: which state you live in, and that you are over 18. Then you go to payment.

Almost. Membership is open across the United States apart from Washington and Nevada.

You fill in a short welcome form. Then two documents arrive by email through SignWell for you to read and sign electronically: the Membership Agreement and the Community Guidelines Agreement. If anything in either one is unclear, ask us before you sign. A third document, the Support Person Authorization, is optional. You only sign it if you want to name a Support Person, and you can do that now, later, or never. After that you get a booking link for your interview. About 45 minutes, over video, at a time you pick. A support person can be with you if you want one there. Then your portal access opens.

Membership runs for a year and does not renew automatically. There are no recurring charges. When the year is up we send an invoice, and if you would rather not continue, you do nothing.

A private community platform, yours for as long as your membership is active. It is open all the time and you choose which parts you use. Inside it: full-length articles and practical resources on communication, boundaries and building a social life; virtual gatherings, including question-and-answer sessions with a coach, lectures on the month’s theme and group support chats; discussions where members bring their own questions and coaches take part; Nova, our Constellations AI Assistant; North Star versions of what we publish; and Connection Requests and messaging. One-to-one coaching is available separately, at a discounted member rate in the portal.

There is no minimum. Nobody tracks attendance. We will say the honest thing, though: the more you put in, the more you get out. Members who post in a discussion, turn up to a few gatherings and send the occasional Connection Request meet more people than members who only read. That is not a rule we enforce. It is just how it works, and it is worth knowing before you decide whether this is worth the money to you. Reading without posting counts, especially at first. Plenty of people start there.

An AI guidance tool inside the portal, built on our coaches’ work. Ask it a general question about friendship, relationships or communication, ask how something in your membership works, or ask it to put anything we have written into plainer words, shorter steps or a concrete example, as many times as you like. Two things it is built to help with in particular: understanding what a profile or a conversation is actually giving away, and recognizing a romance scam before it costs you anything. Nova is not a person, a coach or a therapist, and it can be wrong.

You send one to another member by clicking Connect on their Portal profile. If they accept, the two of you can message each other. Nobody is required to accept a request, and declining one needs no explanation.

It depends. Our team builds an Introduction Profile with you, and when we think two members might get along, we consider an introduction. We do not promise introductions and we do not guarantee where one leads. Both people have to want to go ahead. One person’s interest is never enough.

No. Plenty of people join for the community, the reading and the programming and never ask for one. Nothing in the membership requires you to want anything in particular.

Then you stop. No fee you have paid, no preference a parent holds, and no suggestion from us creates an obligation to reply, to continue, or to explain yourself.

Yes, in select US cities. When a gathering has a ticket fee, yours is covered by your membership.

Someone a member chooses to include. A parent, a family member, a coach, an aide. Naming one is the member’s decision, set down in a document the member signs, and the member can change who it is or end it at any time without giving a reason. There is one level of sharing, not a menu. We strive to CC the member’s Support Person on all Constellations-related correspondence. They never get a portal account, the member’s private messages, or anything about the member’s health or relationship history.

Yes. Before anyone is added as a Support Person, we search public state sex offender registries for them. Every person, every time, before they receive anything. A name on its own is never treated as a match. A person runs the search, a person checks it, and a person makes the decision. If something comes back, we look again carefully and write to the person before anything happens, so a wrong match can be corrected. It is not a background check and it is not identity verification. It happens once, when the person is named, and it says nothing about any day after that. A screened Support Person is not a vouched-for one.

No. When you join you make a representation about your own conduct in the Membership Agreement, and nothing further is checked. A registry search finds people on sex offender registries and nothing else. It does not find someone who was never reported, never charged, or never convicted, and that is most of it. Membership is not a safety credential, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise by screening. What we do choose is who we hand your information to.

What you are included in is your adult child’s decision, written down during onboarding. It does not follow from paying. We know that can sit uncomfortably when you are the one writing the check. It is also the thing that makes the community worth joining for the adult in it. Someone who cannot decide who sees their conversations cannot have them.

No. Nova conversations are not shared with a Support Person or with whoever paid for the membership.

No. We do not read your private conversations with other members, and nobody on our team is watching the community minute by minute.

Use the Report a Concern form in the member portal. It is for anything that worries you inside Constellations: a message from another member, something at a Gathering, something in the portal, or something about the program itself. A person on the Constellations team reads every report and writes back within two business days. A response means a person has read your report and replied to tell you what happens next. It is not a decision or an outcome. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911. Constellations cannot respond to emergencies.